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Reading & Rapping
The Vindicator
Photo
Kelaya Banks, a sixth-grader at Wilson Middle School in Youngstown, holds a copy of author Jaime Adoff’s book “Jimi and Me.” Adoff was visiting with students as part of Right to Read Week.
The Vindicator
Photo
Author Jaime Adoff visits with students at Wilson Middle School in Youngstown on Tuesday as part of Right to Read Week. Sixth-grade students are reading Adoff’s book, “Jimi and Me,” recipient of the 2006 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award.
Writer, Wilson students find time to rhyme
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Growing up, the last thing Yellow Springs, Ohio, native Jaime Adoff wanted to be was a writer.
But after his aspirations of being a rock star didn’t pan out, Adoff took to writing as a way of self-expression.
Adoff spoke Tuesday to Wilson Middle School students as part of Right to Read Week.
Principal Jerome Harrell said that sixth-grade students are reading Adoff’s book, “Jimi and Me,” recipient of the 2006 Coretta Scott King/‚ãJohn Steptoe New Talent Author Award. Seventh- and eighth-graders are reading “Names Will Never Hurt Me.”
Adoff grew up surrounded by books.
His mother was the late Virginia Hamilton, a Newberry award-winning author, and his father, Arnold Adoff, is a renowned poet.
“I grew up in a home that was very much like a library,” Adoff said.
With hopes of a music career, he moved to New York City, playing in a rock band but started writing as a way to get through hard times.
That’s similar to the way students write their thoughts using Facebook and Twitter.
“All of you are starting out like I did,” he said.
Adoff rapped some of his poems with “Twelve” eliciting the most obvious reaction with applause and shouts. It tells the story of a 12-year-old boy, growing up in a crime-riddled neighborhood and how he writes raps to deal with it.
He didn’t become a writer because of the money.
“If it was really for money I’d be writing about vampires and werewolves,” Adoff said. “I want to write about kids like you and hopefully you find something in there you can relate to.”
To welcome Adoff to the school, seventh- graders Tyler Jones and Sidney Jordan and eighth-grader Travis Jones rapped their rhymes about the evils of bullying.
Eighth-grader girls Tyler Johnson, Breaysia Johnson, Deaysha Butler and Raven Rutledge belted out Aretha Franklin’s classic, “Respect,” as part of the occasion.
The girls, all of whom have read Adoff’s “Names Will Never Hurt Me,” said it tells the story of four high school students from different backgrounds and how they each cope with a day at school. They say they enjoyed the book and Adoff’s presentation.
“It was very interesting,” Tyler said. “I liked it.”
“There was a lot of action,” added Breaysia.